Set Up

I thought I'd share how I have my iPad presentation set up in case you're trying to figure out the best way to do it.

Here are some photos:

This is my LCD projector, laptop, iPad, speakers, and my Point2Vue doc camera by Ipevo.

I was at an Adobe Photoshop User group meeting and someone was presenting with this doc camera.  I love it because it's so small and portable and yet has great clarity and the ability to zoom.  This lets me show the students where I'm placing my fingers to open apps or swipe.

Carrying Case open

Carrying Case closed

The VGA adapter lets me project exactly what is on the iPad.

 The splitter lets two students work together using two pairs of headphones.

This device lets a group of five students listen to one iPad.

I do have another couple of photos with the new headphones I bought.  They work much better with the iPad and take up much less room.  They're made by iHome and cost just $20 at Office Max.

The speaker is closed here and ready to be put into its traveling bag

Trapped by an App

Objective:  Students will improve their reading comprehension by using context clues while reading and by using digital tools such as the Dictionary app.

I used the app Miss Spider's Tea Party to have students work on using context clues to determine word meaning.  In their pairs students listened to the book being read as they read along.  Before I gave students instructions, I handed them a list of words which I thought they might have trouble with in the story.  They were instructed to put a check mark in the column that best fit for their knowledge of the word:  Can Define, Recognize, Don't Recognize.  In addition there was another column for Other Words.  Afterwards they were told they could watch an animation of the book being read to see if that helped them to understand the words better.

I also instructed the students in how to use the Dictionary app to look up words by typing them or speaking them; how to listen to the words pronounced; and how to create a Favorites List of words.

All in all this was a bit of a frustrating lesson for me.  I had planned on using a different app, The Unwanted Guest, but when I watched it through and listed all the vocabulary words my students would need help with, it was just not feasible to use it.  I listed over four pages of vocabulary words my students probably wouldn't be familiar with. So then I searched until I found Miss Spider's Tea Party, read it and came up with only one page of vocabulary words (still too many, but usable).  The first major problem I ran into came when I downloaded the free app and got caught in its web.  With no warning or indication that it would happen, the app downloaded along with about 13 other unwanted game apps and advertising apps.  Since the iPads are linked to the same account, I then had to go into each iPad and delete all the superfluous apps.  What a sticky web was weaved for me. You can see why I'm not hyper linking the app on this blog; I don't want anyone else falling into the trap.

Correction:  I found out later that the reason the unwanted apps appeared was that my principal had downloaded the apps to his iPad which is linked to the same account as the student iPads.  His iPad has since been unlinked.  Lesson learned.

iTalk update

Earlier I wrote that with the free version of iTalk, I couldn't save the students' recordings and upload them to Dropbox.  I accidentally discovered that when I have the iPad synced with iTunes and I scroll down to the bottom, I can transfer files from iTalk to my computer with File Sharing.

"Twas the Night performed

On Friday I went to the ELL students' classroom to play the Moving Tales "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with the students' narration.  They really seemed to enjoy hearing themselves and each other.  As soon as someone started narrating, they called out the name of the person.  I narrated one page and the vice-principal narrated the last page and the students seemed tickled that he participated.  They applauded when the book was done.  I really do think I'm hearing improvement in their fluency already.  I'm going to look for more interactive book apps which will allow us to record their voices and then project the book.  It would also be nice if I could save a copy of the recording.

Still "Twas the Night

I wanted to be sure to record as many students as I could reading aloud in the Moving Tales app.  I pulled some of them out during lunchtime today and they recorded a page of the story, so that tomorrow we'll all be able to watch it again with the students' narrating the whole thing.  I might have to sneak in narrating the last page.  Today their teacher, Ms. Sigler, told me she said to them, "I don't remember what we're doing tomorrow,"  and they reminded her, "Ms. Fox is coming with the iPads!"  I love that they're so motivated by this project.
One thing I realized I have to constantly remember is to always write down when I download a free or paid app.  The free iBook app I downloaded to all the iPads last week costs $1.99 today.  I'm keeping a spreadsheet with all the apps and dates that I download them, so that we don't run into any problems.  As an individual I can purchase an app and put it on five of my own devices, but since these are for a school, I'd need to purchase one for each iPad.  When I get them for free I have to be sure to keep track of that in case they start charging money for the app in the future (like what just happened).

T'was the Night

Objective:  students will know how to use tools in iBooks on the iPad to improve their reading comprehension.
Continuing Objective:  students will focus on reading with expression, with correct phrasing, and at an appropriate rate.

One of the apps' companies I really like is Moving Tales.  They create a cross between a book and a movie in app form.  In the future I plan to use The Unwanted Guest and The Pedlar Lady of Gushing Cross, but today it's going to be T'was the Night Before Christmas.  'Tis the season, you know.  I did just find out they have a new book app called This Too Shall Pass that I'm going to have to check out soon.

When the students came in I told them we would be having holiday fun today reading a story/poem by Clement Moore.  First I did a brief lesson on contractions and archaic English, so they would understand the word 'Twas.  As part of the introduction, we also talked about rhyming couplets.

Then the fun began.  We watched, listened, and read the Moving Tales version of "Twas the night Before Christmas," and I asked the students to be attentive to words they might not understand.  After viewing the story, we switched to a free version of the story that I had downloaded to iBooks.  It was a version they could also listen to.  I modeled how they could use the iBooks magnifier tool to define a word - we used it to define "coursers."

Students then worked in pairs practicing reading aloud while using the magnifier to define words.  While they were doing that, I called up individual students and used the Moving Tales app to record them reading pages of the story.  I would play the app with the narration, have them practice, and then record them.  We ran out of time to record all of them, so I'll keep you posted on how we followed up.

Toy Story

Objective:  Students will be able to read a children's story with expression.

Today we had some fun with the free Toy Story app.  Using the Apple VGA adapter, I hooked up my iPad to the LCD projector and we all watched and listened to the interactive book, Toy Story.  I told students they would be expected to read it aloud themselves next so they needed to pay close attention to the narrator and how he showed expression with his reading voice.
Afterwards students were paired up with an iPad and assigned two pages to practice reading aloud.  I showed them how to use the recording option within the book so that they could listen to their own recording.  Some of the students came up to me fairly quickly telling me they were ready, but when I reminded them that we would all be reading aloud, they quickly said, "Oh, no, I'm not ready.  I'll practice more."  I overheard one boy tell another, "You need more expression."

When they were all done, we read the book aloud as we watched it, taking turns to read all the pages.  Even before we started the first boy who was to read, stood up and said, "We should stand," so all students stood to read as their turn came and tried to show expression in their reading.  When we were done, one of the students said, "I didn't do very well.  Can I do it again?"  We went back to his part, he stood, and read it again doing a much better job.  I was thrilled that he took the initiative to critique himself and publicly reread and improve.